You found the perfect design, got the wording just right, and finally ordered your wedding invitations! Now what? Here are a few tips to help with managing your invitations and RSVPs without having to make it your full time job!

1.Give guests a short window within which to respond.Send out your invitations two months prior to your wedding and set the RSVP deadline for one month prior. If you give people a sense of urgency to send it back (30 days or less from when they receive the invitation), they will be more likely to return their RSVP in a timely manner.

2. Keep track of RSVPs as they are returned.Pick a tracking method that is easy on you! If you are super organized, create a spreadsheet to keep track of guests’ names, number attending, and meal selections. If you would rather have an automated method, many wedding websites, such as Wedding Wire, The Knot, or RSVPify allow your guests to actually send in their response online and then help you to keep all of their info organized. Or better yet, if you just don’t want to deal with RSVPs at all, let your wedding planner take care of them!

3. Don’t be afraid to hunt down tardy responders!Inevitably, your RSVP deadline will come and go and you will still be waiting on some responses. Give your guests a week or so past the deadline to let you know if they are coming or not, and then, start calling! You will need to start getting head counts to your wedding vendors a few weeks before your wedding, so don’t sit around hoping that missing RSVPs will just magically show up in the mailbox. It is better to call your tardy responders to get an accurate count than to guess on numbers and come out too far under or over.

4. Be sure to communicate your final guest count to your vendors.If you have a wedding planner, they will help you with this part! If not, be sure to tell all of your vendors (especially your caterer, bar service, wedding cake baker, and rental company) the number of people that will be attending your wedding so they can plan accordingly. Check your contracts with your vendors carefully as they will usually list a date when the final numbers are needed.